One of the great wines of Australia, Hunter Shiraz is powerful as it is subtle. Everything is in balance: Pure ripe blackberry fruit flavours, some spice and earthy characters and round soft tannins.

Recognised as one of the first vineyards in the Hunter Valley, Audrey Wilksonson has a long and storied history in the region. They continue today to produce wines of region character with fine craftsmanship. Their Hunter Valley Shiraz is a wine in perfect harmony. Majority French oak is used to mature a wine that has flavours of intense cherries and violets overlapping powerful mulberry and that traditional Hunter character of forest floor and earth.

Tyrrell's Vat 8 is the archetypal blend of tradition and modernity. With a strong history in both the Hunter Valley and Hilltops regions, Tyrrell's are able to showcase the very best in modern Australian winemaking. The Vat 8 consists of a majority Hunter Valley Shiraz the lends beauty, flavour and ripeness and a small parcel of Hilltops Cabernet which supports the Shiraz with power and structure. Elegant and pristine early, this is a wine that will enjoy some time in the cellar to further develop it already obvious complexity.

Brokenwood and the Hunter Valley region is experience somewhat of a renaissance of late. Quality wines for a great prices just like this nice Hunter Shiraz. Typical earthy notes with hints of leather and spice all wrapped around dark brooding plum and cherry fruit. Quality oak imparts a subtle cedar character and fine grained tannins complete the wine that finishes long and smooth.

Deep brick red in colour this classic Hunter red by Mount Pleasant offers blackberry leather and cedary oak aromas. The Rosehill's palate is mouth filling and satisfying with spicy sweet fruit flavours and firm tannins on the finish.

This wine is crafted from hand picked Shiraz grapes from two of the oldest vineyards in the Hunter Valley. Quality fruit produces a beautifully rich and seamless palate of sweet red and blackberry fruit, combined with dense vanilla oak and a chocolatey finish. Ideal fo long term cellering.

Graveyard Vineyard is the jewel in the Brokenwood crown, responsible for the company's flagship wines. The vineyard was planted with Shiraz vines in 1970 - extremely heavy clay soils, yields are low, but fruit flavour is intense through employment of meticulous vinification techniques. Strong lifted aromas of sweet earth and dark cherry greet the olfactory senses. Oak features, but will soften and integrate given some patience. Initial flavours of dark chocolate and ripe plums are beautifully lashed to ripe tannins lending an edge of cedar.

McWilliam's Mount Pleasant Maurice O'Shea Shiraz continues lead the pack of great Hunter Valley Shiraz. A lovely return to old form, this Maurice has a striking purple hue to it in the glass. To the nose aromas of liquorice and spice with hints of cedar will beguile. Layers of complex flavours dance across the palate including savoury, spicy dark fruits like dark plums and cherries. A classic of classics.